Fake Boyfriend

- Pagan -

Inconspicuous and incognito. That’s how our relationship is now. We hid our affections beneath masks and concealed our true feelings from friends with lengthy letters. Every time I saw him I was drawn back to that night when we kissed.

===

We finally broke from our kiss. My hands shook as I gently grazed the back of his neck with my fingertips. We stared into each others eyes for a while, slowly letting the moment envelop us.

“Wow,” he muttered, breaking the long silence.

“I know,” I replied. My brain was not forming coherent thoughts right now.

“Where do we go from here?” he asked. Did he have to bring this up?

“I guess we have to tell Danica and Morgan that they were right. There goes my day,” I said.

“Not exactly,” he said.

“What are you scheming Mr. Lacey?” I said. He wrapped his arm around my waist.

“It was just a kiss. I say we take the whole relationship thing for a test drive and then we tell them,” he said.

“Keeping it on the down low, I like it. So what’s first on the test drive?”

“I take you home, give you a good night kiss, and see you in the morning for when we see Craig and Morgan off.”

“Such a gentleman.” And he was. He ushered me to the front door and gave me a tantalizing kiss good night. I quickly ran up to my room and waited for him to get to his. When he appeared I quickly wrote down good night on an old dry erase board I had stashed away. He smiled and flipped off his light.
====

“Pagan! Earth to Pagan!” Danica said to me as we sat at our local coffee shop. Morgan was due back from her honeymoon the next day and we were planning some sort of party for her and Craig. My mind was drawn elsewhere as Jesse was supposed to show up soon and walk me home. The thought of him nuzzling my neck, his kisses on my lips made me lose all ability to comprehend what she was saying.

“Yeah sorry, mind is elsewhere,” I said.

“I should say so. And I am not gong to let you avoid this again,” she said. I knew she wanted to talk about the wedding.

“Danica seriously,” I said. She held up a hand to stop me.

“Seriously Pagan. Everyone was talking about you and Jesse. You guys danced together and left together. What did you guys do huh?” She raised her eyebrows a few times indicating something naughty.

“God Danica no. We went back to his place and played some cards. Oh and I taught him to dance since if you were so intently watching us, he is an awful dancer,” I said. She stared at me for a moment then looked away. I could sense the wheels turning in her head. When she was finally finished talking about the party, Jesse walked in the door. As he passed us, he slid a note into my bag.

“What was that?” Danica said, pointing to my bag.

“What was what?” I asked, trying to play it off.

“He just slipped something into your bag,” she said, pointing to Jesse. He had a startled look on his face.

“He’s probably stealing something from my bag more like it,” I said. She shrugged but dove for my bag. I tried to quietly wrestle it away from her but she ran outside, note in hand.

“Oh it’s a note. Let’s read it. Pagan, Dinner tonight at 7, my place. You bring that amazing smile of yours and those lips I love to kiss. Jesse XOXO.”

“Danica I--”

“Holy shit!” she exclaimed. I heard the ding of the bell and Jesse stepped out.

“Give me the fucking note Danica and I won’t kill you on this damn street where you stand. You hear me?” I said. I was feigning the anger and she knew it.

“Eyes of a saint you have, but you’ve got the mouth of a sailor,” Jesse said. He slid an arm around my waist and kissed the side of my head.

“You two better tell me what’s going on,” she said, handing over the note. I folded it back up and put it in my pocket.

“A prank?” My voice was not convincing.

“Lie,” she said.

“An experiment,” Jesse stated.

“I believe that. You two are so apprehensive about actually liking each other you want to try it out,” she said. Damn she was good.

“How’d you figure out?”

“You guys aren’t as sly as you think you are. Over the last few days I’ve noticed things. And I saw you guys kissing last night when I drove by,” she said. I remembered hearing a car pull in the driveway of my house but it quickly left. I figured it was someone turning around, rather then someone seeing something they didn’t expect.

We spent the next hour explaining to Danica exactly what went down the night after the wedding. Her side was mainly filled with nods and a look of utter shock when we explained the kiss.

“There you have it, the entire story,” I said.

“I knew Jesse would make the first move,” she said.

“I hate you,” I replied.

“So now that your secret is out in the open, what’s next?” she asked. I shrugged. I hadn’t thought of what would happen when we were finally ‘out’ to our friends.

“No clue,” Jesse said. At least we shared the same thoughts. He gave my hand a hard squeeze and I squeezed back.

“Well I suggest you guys use the party for Morgan and Craig as your first official outing. Oh this is so exciting,” she said and pulled out her party planning book.

“Danica we don’t want to make a big deal of this. It’s only been a few days,” I said. She continued her protest. This was going to be a long couple of days.

The day of the party arrived. I had already welcomed home Morgan and Craig yesterday and was dreading her reaction when I revealed the news to her. She was ecstatic that I was using the party as our first official first date, even though we had dinner together almost every night. Jesse and I stood anxiously at Morgan’s front door. I was wishing I had worn something warmer then a tee shirt when Jesse pulled me in close.

“So this is it,” he said.

“Yep,” I said. I lifted my hand, holding it in front of the doorbell. I couldn’t bring myself to actually ring it.

“You want to ditch?” he asked.

“We do and your cousin will start a manhunt. I just need to ring the doorbell--” The door flew open and Morgan was standing there.

“I saw you two through the window and thought you were going to ditch. I thought I could catch you two before you actually did,” she said. There went Jesse’s plan I was actually about to agree to.

“Damn you and your ability to listen to me when I have a good idea,” he said as we walked inside. I looked around the room and noticed that Danica had changed the theme to a karaoke party.

“I was just about to give in when she opened the damn door. Next time just snatch and grab,” I whispered in his ear. He laughed and pulled me in for a kiss. As our lips met, the whole room said a collective “aw” while snapping photos. I decided to give them something photo worthy so I raised my hand and flipped them all off.